Gulling - a sure sign of desperation!

It continues to be grey and virtually birdless – surely the least exciting bird winter in Oslo in the nearly 25 years I have lived here.

An appointment down town this morning allowed me to check out what urban birds there might be around the Opera. I failed to find the Peregrines on their normal perch on the Posten building so any excitement was going to be on the gull front which as regular readers know is not a family of birds that I normally find that exciting but rather frustrating. In addition me looking at gulls is a sign of complete desperation!

There was a large gang of mostly 1^st winter Herring Gulls hanging around waiting to be fed. This autumn there has been a lot of social media focus on weak Guillemots on the fjord which has resulted in a campaign to feed them with fish and especially by the Opera where many Guillemots wait offshore to be fed. This source of easy food has of course been discovered by the smart and opportunistic local Herring Gulls and this has now resulted in them being fed on an industrial scale away from the Guillemots so as to allow the Guillemots to feed successfully and in peace. Personally, I am no fan of this artificial feeding as the young gulls are missing out on how to discover their own food (it was quite striking how relatively few adults birds were there) and there is plenty of natural food (starfish) at the moment.

I could find no white wingers or Caspian or even Caspian look-a-likes amongst the lazy gulls but there were two 1cy Herring with very creamy colours of the type that suggests a hybrid with Glaucous Gull. One of these was ringed and proved to have hatched in a nearby colony and with no reports of Glaucous Gulls this, or any previous, summer this (and a number of previously similar and locally bred birds) shows that these are pale colour forms and within the variation of Herring Gulls rather than hybrids.

 

A Lesser Black-backed Gull was perhaps the highlight. Wintering birds in Norway are rare and less than annual in Oslo and are normally young birds. This one had a black back and had previously been suggested to be a fuscus (Baltic Gull) which is also a very rare subspecies in the south of the country. Although the bird had a surprisingly little amount of streaking on the head I could see nothing else to suggest fuscus with there being an obvious contrast between black outer primaries and otherwise dark grey wings. There were a few browner feathers in the wings especially the median primary coverts which I initially took to be a sign of immaturity but the outermost primary (P10) was also brown but was clearly an adult feather due to its large mirror so these browner feathers must be older unmoulted feathers.  The tail was also completely white and the bill had no dark smudges that it has before full adulthood.

a very pale 1cy Herring Gull (gråmåke) that some may suggest is a hybrid with Glaucous Gull (polarmåke). Compare it to normally plumaged bird to its left. This bird was ringed as a nestling in a nearby colony and similar ringed birds in previous years seem to prove that these birds are just within the variation of Herring Gulls

and another similar but unringed bird

and an example of a very dark Herring Gull

the adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (sildemåke) in front of the Munch Museum

note that P10 is old an unmoulted, P9 has just been dropped and a new feather is growing out. The brown medium primary coverts and some secondaries are also unmoulted feathers contrasting with new, moulted, feathers

the wings are much too grey to be fuscus

note that the moult is symmetric in the left and right wings with the new P9 equally long

and a brute of a young Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak)

To hang em or not to hang em?

 

Do you see anything hanging on that hook?

No?

That’s because today delivered big time 😊

 

Today really did feel like a make or break day for (my) Oslo bird year. If the forecast southerly winds, cloud and showers did not deliver on 9^th May then there would be no chance of this spring having a big day especially as the forecast for the next 10 days just looks to be sun. I had been thinking of playing away and seawatching at Brentetangen followed by Kurefjorden and then Dotterel searching but in the end decided, with Jack, to keep it local and stare at the fjord at Huk from sunrise. I have only done this once before but the efforts of Per Buertange a decade or so ago proved that there was potential in it. We got there at 0450 to see that there was a fairly low, and heavy, cloud base and a decent southerly wind blowing into our faces. Now we just had to sit down, keep warm and wait to find out what the bird gods had in store for us.

the view at 05:27

For the first hour or so I was thinking that I would be hanging my bins on that hook as apart from a large flock of Common Scoter resting on the sea and a Bar-tailed Godwit (Oslo #157) that had been roosting on the rocks when we arrived there was really no sign of any movement. But then things did move. First Jack picked up a skua and a dark phase Arctic (Oslo #158) passed at relatively close range. Then we heard a Greenshank calling above us and in our attempts to find it (there were 13 of them) we saw a large flock of Red-throated Divers (60) and then over the course of the next couple of hours we had a numbers of other flocks and ended up totalling 323 birds which absolutely blasts away any previous counts from south eastern Norway. We also had migrating flocks of Whimbrel which totalled 53, a huge flock of 200 Golden Plover which flew north before turning around, 70 Velvet Scoters, 3 Guillemots and an Arctic Tern (Oslo #159). Rarest though was a flyover Red-throated Pipit (Oslo #160) which we identified on call although our views did confirm it was a pipit.. and a Great Northern Diver (Oslo #161) which is an Oslo tick tick for me, #251.

One disappointing and really strange feature of the morning was the complete lack of passerine migration with not a single Yellow Wag or Wheatear for example.

 

We packed our bags after 5 hours and then headed to Maridalen. Here it was raining and with the low cloud expectations were not low but there was little to see although a singing Icterine Warbler (Oslo #162) and Hobby (Oslo #163) heading north were notable and new for the year.

There were 30 or so Swallows feeding over the lake so we thought Østensjøvannet could be a good call for hirundines and maybe terns or Little Gulls. There were a few Swallows and House Martins but 3 Swifts (Oslo #164) were the best we could conjure up.

So I had 8 Oslo year ticks today and I am now approaching the number of species I feel are guaranteed so if I am to have a record year I need a rush of scarce and rare birds.

Arctic Skua (tyvjo) heading towards us with Common Terns (makrellterne) behind

as close as it got and despite the gloom these are I think my best pics of the species close to Oslo

60 odd Red-throated Divers (smålom) @06.59

and part of an even larger flock @08.56. The flocks were flying high and didn't seem to be sure of where to go

some of the 400+ Common Scoter (svartand) that were offshore

and ca.200 Golden Plover (heilo) that first flew north and then turned and went back south

there were good numbers of Common Terns (makrellterne) and amongst them at least this one Arctic (rødnebbterne)

some of the 70 Velvet Scoter (sjøorre) we saw

a couple of the 53 Whimbrel (småspove) we saw stopped for a rest and here this one looks tiny next to a Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak)

an early singing Icterine Warbler (gulsanger) in Maridalen

and the first Hobby (lerkefalk) of the year

A risky trip to England

 A first visit to England for nearly three years (thanks Covid!) was much needed and very enjoyable but made me a bit nervous as it would mean I was away from my beloved Dale during perhaps the most exciting period of the year. I did not seem to miss much but as Halvard was also away there was not much coverage. However, on landing on Sunday afternoon my phone pinged with a message of a Med Gull in the Dale. It took me longer than wanted to get there (a Beast had to picked up from a kennel and a drive thru McDonalds proved to be anything other than fast food) but after finally getting up into the Dale I located it in my scope together with a large flock of Common Gulls just seconds before everything in the area flew up and the gulls then proceeded to fly around very high up for the next hour and I never saw the bird again…)

Whilst hoping that the gulls would land again I had a great experience involving a Wood Pigeon and a cast of predators. I saw a small group of Wood Pigeons flying over the lake with a Goshawk in pursuit. The hawk picked out one of the birds and stooped at it. I managed to take pictures but in the process lost sight of the birds. A minute or so later the call of Hooded Crows drew my attention to the Goshawk flying low over the water quite  long way away and the Pigeon was flapping in the water. A number of Hooded Crows came to mob Goshawk who gave up on its dinner and headed over the water straight towards me. After the hawk disappeared the Wood Pigeon tried to flap its way towards land but it was a long way and then a Great Black-backed Gull showed an interest in it. They normally swallow their prey whole but that wouldn’t be the case here and it just started stabbing at the pigeon and soon there were feathers all over the water and the bird was no long flapping. I couldn’t really see how much the gull was getting to eat but then an Osprey! took an interest in what was going on and dived down possibly to see if there was a fish for it to eat but it then started mobbing the gull which turned the tables before the Osprey again chased the gull. Quite a scene!

A visit on Monday revealed a new arrival of Wood Sandpipers and Greenshank showing that wader passage is far from over (and water levels continue to fall) and my first Swift, Garden Warbler and Wood Warbler of the year also all showed. There is still a pair of Little Ringed Plovers and they were engaged in their nest scraping display whereby the male was calling and scraping a nest and the female then came to investigate it whilst he stood over her. He clearly then wanted to mate and although she resisted at first she then allowed him to approach before an overflying Sparrowhawk seemed to put them both out of the mood.

Goshawk (hønsehauk) chasing Wood Pigeon (ringdue)

This video has the full sequence of events:

And a sequence of shots showing the Little Ringed Plovers (dverglo) where the male has made a nest scrape which the female comes to inspect

The bay at Kirkeby is attracting lots of birds

There are now 5! Lapwing (vipe) nests at Skjerven and I think there is an additional pair that have not nested yet

Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak) chasing Osprey (fiskeørn)

the tables are about to turn

and have turned now

Greenshank (gluttsnipe), Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk) and Lapwing (vipe)

male Whinchat (buskskvett)

Whinchat and female Redstart (rødstjert)

Wood Warbler (bøksanger)

there are now some more butterflies and this tiny Grizzled Skipper (bakkesmyger) was only my third in Oslo

this Comma (hvit C) was really large and I didn't work out at first what it was

Crane (trane) - it looks like the Maridalen pair has failed in its breeding attempt yet again

Greenshank (gluttsnipe)

I was surprised to find Greenfinch (grønnfink) young already out of the nest